Details of the bidding battle to win the full contract for one of the most prized offshore projects up for grabs next year – the Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility for Eni’s Coral South development off east Africa’s Mozambique – are starting to emerge, with KBR and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) the latest to confirm they are in the hunt.

The KD Consortium revealed it was one of three consortia to be awarded a FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) study contract by Eni East Africa for the facility, which will if it comes to reality produce gas from the deepwater project and liquefy it for export. The KD consortium is one of three competing in parallel for the full engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract to build the FLNG unit for the Italian operator.

The FEED process actually kicked off in May this year, with the front end studies all due for completion by April 2015. DI understands those the KD Consortium is up against – and the main combatants are perhaps no surprise – include DSME’s heavyweight domestic rivals Samsung Heavy Industries (teamed up with Technip and JGC), and Hyundai Heavy Industries (with Chiyoda and Italy’s Saipem). It is unclear at this point whether a further consortium from Japan, led by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (with Modec, Toyo Engineering and CB&I), is still in the mix.

The prize is potentially a huge one, as the eventual winner would also be well-placed to receive possible contracts for ‘replica’ units from the Italian operator, which is known to be considering at least two further FLNG facilities for its remote gas fields offshore Mozambique.

The Hyundai-Chiyoda-Saipem consortium is being tipped at this relatively early stage, but that is mainly only due to Saipem’s work on early engineering aspects of Eni’s FLNG concept (which also saw some work sub-contracted to Norway’s Aker Solutions). This consortium has, of course, also carried out FEED work for ExxonMobil on its remote deepwater Scarborough FLNG scheme off the west coast of Australia.

But to counter that, it is worth pointing out that Samsung equally is working on Shell’s Prelude FLNG project destined for offshore western Australia, while DSME is working for Malaysia’s Petronas on its PFLNG1 facility (see DI, 6 October 2014, page 7).

A clearer picture is likely to emerge by the end of the year, with those still in the running by April next year to then be asked to submit a full EPCIC bid just a month later.

At present the ongoing FEED work is on the topsides, hull and subsea systems. KBR said that in its case, the topsides and turret are being designed at its Leatherhead, England office while the hull and marine system are being engineered in DSME’s facility in Seoul, South Korea. No contract value was disclosed.

The FLNG facility itself will be a turret-moored double-hull vessel, on which gas receiving, processing, liquefaction, and offloading facilities will be mounted together with LNG and condensate storage.

Coral South lies in around 2,000 m (6,562 ft) of water in the Rovuma Basin, around 241 km (150 miles) northeast of Pemba and 48 km (30 miles) from the Mozambique coast.

  • Eni also signed a co-operation agreement with Kogas (Korea Gas Corp.) on upstream and LNG activities worldwide, including Mozambique’s Area 4. The block holds total resources estimated at up to approximately 85 Tcf of gas in place. Eni said it expects the cooperation agreement to facilitate the Area 4 LNG development.